I don't disagree with you. Some questions require the passage to answer the question.
However, it is definitely possible to do relatively better by not reading the passages. I know this because it is true with me.
The trick is in the sacrifices you make for more questions. It is true that I usually miss the 2-3 questions per practice test that REQUIRE some information from the passage that I didn't see because I didnt read the passage. However, the number of questions that I get correct because I have more time to solve the problems greatly outweighs the number that I may miss.
It is true that this is not the strategy for people who are aiming for a 13 or higher, but for people who are struggling with time and need a quick fix when they feel they have finished content review, this strategy works.
I make the sacrifices of those 2-3 questions that are answered directly by the passage and are too hard to find without reading thoroughly and take the huge gain of time so that I can get an average of 12-14 MORE questions correct. The net increase in my raw score is between 9-11 questions out of 52 (just enough to increase my Physical Sciences score by 3-4 points).
I am not saying that there are absolutely no questions in the PS section that require information from the passage... that would be silly.
I don't know. I hope this strategy works from some others too because I was truly struggling with a 7 in the PS section. 10-11 is much more representative of my Physics skills.
Best,
C
The correct answer is to work on your timing, not skipping the passage. The questions on the MCAT are not intended to take you very long at all to solve, with a few exceptions for the occasional monster problem. You need to figure out why you're taking too long and address that issue.
Are you getting hung up on hard problems? Learn when to give up on a question and move on.
Are you spending too much time reading the passage instead of answering questions? Realize that you only need to do a cursory read-through of the passage to see what it's about and not try to figure out everything your first time through. I don't even bother looking at graphs, charts, tables, or figures unless a question refers back to them.
Are you taking too long on most questions? Learn how to utilize calculation shortcuts (rounding, only bothering with calculating the powers of ten, etc), POE, intuiting physics questions and looking at units (often you don't even need the formulas), and things of that nature. Also consider that you may have content weaknesses that prevent you from being able to quickly solve questions. Just because you can get a question right doesn't mean you're good with the concepts it tested.
I say all of this because while skipping passages might work well enough for you on practice problems on tests, if the recent takers of the MCAT are to be believed then the MCAT has started taking the passage aspect of the test a lot more seriously in recent years. It seems that no longer are many passage questions just glorified discretes, you actually need to read and understand the passages now. Sure, maybe everyone just says that because they freaked out on test day, but it's worth asking yourself what's going to happen to your score if that turns out to be true.
